CraftSummer 2010

It’s been nearly a week since my Surface Design in Textile Collage class wrapped up. What a wild group! Of course, I’m pretty good about creating a “permissive” environment, and the ladies just ran with it. It’s a kick to be paid to sit in a room with a bunch of rabble rousers, listening to stories. A personal favorite was one about a 4th grade boy asking his teacher how to spell “masturbate”. The teacher was appropriately concerned and asked him about it in private, and the kid explained that he was writing about when his dad and him went fishing and to a store that was called Master Bait and Tackle. Too much, really!

Ron Stevens, Director of CraftSummer @ Miami U of Ohio, made two mistakes that week. The first was introducing myself and the class as one that is always up to something at the kick-off meeting for the entire CS group. Bad Ron! Second mistake was during his visit to the marbling class run by the Mimi & Molly show: when asked if he had anything to marble, he said he only had his underwear. Unfortunate answer, Ron! I can’t take much credit (or blame) for the following outfit. A student in my class suggested CraftSummer needed a Cabana Boy, and the marbling class made him the underwear including the scorpion.

Ron’s is such a good sport! CraftSummer is so fun, and Joyce and Geoff on the staff make the whole experience wonderful. Plus, Oxford OH is a charming college town with great food (Kona Bistro is terrific). Even if you do manage to get lost in it, as this now-totally-ruralized lady did.

The students were super productive this year. Here’s a sampling of what they did, in basically 4 days!

I’m just amazed at the amount and also diversity of what they created in such a short time. Also, with most of the participating artists being arts educators, many of the techniques they learned that week will be utilized in their classrooms, which is pretty exciting to me.

There’s one more textile workshop of the summer planned – mid July at the Indianapolis Art Center. After that, I’m taking a break until September!